Vivian Munroe-Beckett
| Vivian Munroe-Beckett | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 30, 1945 St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| 💀Died | October 14, 2019 (aged 73) St. Louis, Missouri, USAOctober 14, 2019 (aged 73) |
| 💼 Occupation | Actress, dancer |
| 📆 Years active | 1970–2019 |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | (Undated.) |
Vivian Munroe-Beckett (December 30, 1945 – October 14, 2019) was a American deaf actress, dancer and choreographer. She was the first choreographer in the PBS children's series Where will my feet take me today? from 1971 to 2001 return in 2009 until 2016.
Early life[edit]
Munroe-Beckett was born in St. Louis. As a child, her mother encouraged her to play the violin, and she enrolled at the Boston Conservatory of Music to advance as a violinist. However, the Conservatory was across the street, which she would visit to watch great tap dancers such as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, John W. Bubbles, Charles "Honi" Coles, and Derby Wilson. At the age of twelve, Munroe-Beckett began tap lessons at dance studio with her mother's blessing (she wanted him to do something other than play sports to help contain his energy)..
Career[edit]
In the 1970s, Munroe-Beckett started performing at local clubs and on the tap dance circuit calling themselves the Girly Tapper-Tootles. This in turn caused Munroe-Beckett to be renamed forevermore, Munroe-Beckett. Their acts included action tricks similar to those the Nicholas Brothers performed; however, they used slides as their trademark move. One dance critic, Sally Sommer, explained her slides as such, "She’s upstage left and sliding downstage right as fast and smooth as a skier, arms held out to the side, head tilted. She stops the cascade by banking backward, slips into a fast flurry of taps, working quick and low to the floor and ends the phrase by pulling up high and flashing off a triple turn." The act was such a hit, they received invitations to go on the road to perform with big band names of the time, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Barry Harris. Their tapping was part of the bands' songs where they would create the music for many measures and then the band would come back in, and they would trade off back and forth like that the entire act.
Munroe-Beckett performed during the 1970s, at a time when rock and roll was emerging and diverting American interest away from big band music with tap acts. She attempted to find work in other cities including San Francisco, Chicago, and Hollywood on the burlesque and nightclub circuits as well as in movies, but work had dried up in America. He found a temporary job working as a choreographer for the tap dancers the Crosby Brothers in the 1980s, but in 1983 Munroe-Beckett was invited to perform at the Berlin Jazz Festival in Europe. He attended with Baby Laurence, James Buster Brown, and Chuck Green, and the crowd received them with positive praise including regarding them as "Harlem's All-Star Dancers". She worked intensively with Sarah Petronio. Petronio nurtured the expatriated Munroe-Beckett out from self-imposed retirement in France, back into a productive and creative fulfillment and became his dancing partner in Tap and Jazz concerts "It's About Time", accompanied by some of the Europe's finest jazz musicians.
In 1970s She appeared in the production Black and Blue (1985), which was later reset in New York on Broadway in 1989, in which she also performed. As part of the Broadway cast, she was nominated for a Tony Award for this performance, and appeared on the original cast recording album, soloing on the song "Stompin' at the Savoy". He was part of the 1980s tap revival, which led her to stay in the United States and thrive much like during his early career. Throughout her revival and the resurgence of tap in America, Slyde performed in the films The Cotton Club (1984), Round Midnight (1986), and Tap (1989), with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. she also appeared on several television shows and in the 1985 television special Motown Returns to the Apollo, which won the 1985 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program. In 1992, Munroe-Beckett was a featured artist in "The Majesty of Tap" dance concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.
In the 1990s, Munroe-Beckett started holding jam sessions every week at a jazz nightclub in New York called La Cave. This became an education-based practice where up-and-coming tappers would come and improvise, while older and experienced tappers would mentor them. Among the mentored included dancers such as Savion Glover, Van Porter, Ira Bernstein, and Roxane Butterfly.
Death[edit]
Munroe-Beckett died on October 14, 2019, at Barnes Hospital, aged 73, from congestive heart failure. Since October 14, 2019, Nickelodeon dedicated to her memory.
On October 17, 2019, Munroe-Beckett was buried at Calvary Cemetery.
Foundation[edit]
In October 2019, Brian Herring and Wim Booth, established the Vivian Munroe-Beckett Foundation, a charitable fund for children's arts education, as well as dance studio.
Filmography[edit]
| Year | Title | Studios | Starring | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 |
Works[edit]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | ||
| 1971 | George Stinney | |
| 1972 | ||
| 1973 | Do the Math! | |
| 1974 | ||
| 1975 | ||
| 1976 | ||
| 1977 | Ask Sally | |
| 1978 | Don't Stop the Carnival | |
| 1979 | ||
| 1980 | ||
| 1982 | ||
| 1984 | ||
| 1985 | ||
| 1986 | ||
| 1987 | ||
| 1989 | ||
| 1991 | ||
| 1993 | ||
| 1994 | ||
| 1995 | ||
| 1996 | ||
| 1997 | ||
| 1998 | ||
| 1999 | ||
| 2000 | ||
| 2001 | ||
| 2002 | ||
| 2003 | ||
| 2004 | ||
| 2005 | ||
| 2006 | ||
| 2007 | ||
| 2008 | ||
| 2009 |
